Speakers

Michael Kofman is an American expert specialising in Russia, Eurasia and Pakistan. His current research focuses on analysing defence and military activities in Russia and the area of the former Soviet Union. He is a Senior Research Scientist at CNA Corporation which assists the US military, and he is also a Kennan Institute Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center. Kofman publishes articles in his own blog and on other sites, such as War on the Rocks. Kofman holds an M.A. in Security Studies with a concentration in International Security from Georgetown University.

Kati Parppei holds the title of Docent in Russian History in the University of Eastern Finland. Her research focuses on the formation national self-understanding and belief in Karelia and Russia in times before the Russian Revolution. You can read more about her research interest from her personal website. In her book The Battle of Kulikovo Refought, published in 2017, Parppei demonstrates how the current picture of the Battle of Kulikovo (in 1380) that was fought against mongol invaders, is based on many centuries younger retrospection, that has been used as a narrative to support national unity in times when the nation has prepared to defend itself against real and perceived foreign enemies.

Mika Aaltola is the Programme Director of the Global Security research programme at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. His areas of expertise are US foreign and domestic policies as well as the international system and major-power relations. Dr Aaltola is a visiting professor at the Tallinn University since 2011 and he holds the rank of docent from the University of Tampere. He has also been a visiting researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (fall 2013) and at the CERI Sciences Po (fall 2011). He obtained his PhD in social sciences from the University of Tampere in 1999.

Captain ( MSSc, MMilSc) Juha Kukkola is a research officer at the National Defence University’s Department of Warfare. His research area is Russian foreign, security and military politics, and cyber strategy. Together with researchers from the Finnish Defence Research Agency, he has written eleven international conference papers during the last three years, an article for an international journal and a chapter in an edited volume, two article collections and a study report, that all deal with the Russian controlled national Internet segment. Some of published works include: Game Changer: Structural Transformation of Cyberspace (2017) ja Game Player: Facing the Structural Transformation of Cyberspace (coming in 2019). Kukkola is also writing a doctoral dissertation on the same topic.

Jussi Lassila is a Senior Research Fellow in the Finnish Institute of International Affairs’ EU's Eastern Neighbourhood and Russia research programme. His research fields and interests include Russian domestic politics, identity politics, nationalism, populism and political communication. Lassila has publish a monograph The Quest for an Ideal Youth in Putin’s Russia II: The Search for Distinctive Conformism in the Political Communication of Nashi, 2005–2009 (2012; 2nd, updated edition 2014, ibidem Press/CUP) and was the editor and one of the writers in War and Memory in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (2017 Palgrave Macmillan). He has also published articles in the following publications: Russian Politics, Europe–Asia Studies, Transcultural Studies: a series in interdisciplinary research, Demokratizatsiya, Canadian Slavonic Papers, Forum noveishei vostochnoevropeiskoi istorii i kul’tury and in Idäntutkimus journal, and in various edited volumes.

Precious N Chatterje-Doody is a Research Associate at The University of Manchester, working on the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project, "Reframing Russia for the global mediasphere: from Cold War to 'information war'?". Her current programme of research is focused on the representational techniques and topics that RT (formerly Russia Today) uses to engage its global audiences. Her previous published research has looked at the politics of national identity, historical narrative, identity construction and representation, Russian foreign and security policy and global governance. Precious tweets @PreciousChatD

Derek Averre is Reader in Russian Foreign and Security Policy and former Director of the Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Birmingham. Dr Averre’s main research interests focus on Russian foreign/security policy, Russia-Europe relations and arms control/non-proliferation issues. He has co-edited a book and journal special issues, and written numerous journal articles and book chapters, as well as organised a series of policy and academic conferences and presented widely in the United States and Europe on these topics. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal European Security.

Saara Jantunen is a Doctor of Military Sciences and she works as a researcher at the Finnish Defence Research Agency. Her research interests include strategic communication and information influence activities. Currently she is a member of the strategic analysis research group at the Concepts and Doctrine Division. On the side, she enjoys popularizing her research themes and published her first popular book "Infosota" ("Infowar") in 2015. At the moment she works on the Strategic Foresight 2040 project, where she is responsible for the analysis of the future information environment and influence activities.

Martti J Kari is a PhD student of Cyber Security and a university teacher of Strategic Intelligence in Jyväskylä University. He has a Master of Arts in Cyber Security (2017) and MA in Russian language and literature (1993) from Jyväskylä University. The subject of his PhD study is Russia´s Cyber Threat Perception and Response to this Threat. He retired from Finnish Defence Intelligence at the end of 2017. He is retired Colonel and his last post before retirement was the Assistant Chief of Defence Intelligence. He has published articles related to his PhD study and also articles in professional magazines about different topics, for example Intelligence and Intelligence Failure, Ukraine and the Minsk Peace Agreement, Cyber and the Finnish Intelligence Legislation.

Lieutenant Colonel, Military Professor Petteri Lalu is the head of Russia Group at the Finnish National Defence University (FNDU). His areas of expertise are the Russian Art of War and Russian Military Politics. Petteri Lalu obtained his Doctor of Military Sciences from the FNDU in 2014. He has been a commissioned officer in the Finnish Defence Forces since 1990 and completed the General Staff Officer Course in 1999. LTC Lalu’s military experience includes several positions in Ground Based Air Defence, Military Intelligence and Strategic Research.

Capt, Dr. Juha-Pekka Nikkarila has a PhD in Physics (2008) and serves as a researcher and a special officer at the Finnish Defence Research Agency (FDRA). He also has a Master of Sciences in Physics (2006) and MSc(Tech.) in Electrical Engineering (2016). His expertise includes modelling cyber space and its features. In his latest publications he has modelled Cyber influencing, resilience, warfare and closed national networks. With his colleagues he has also proposed cyber wargaming as a method for analysing the effects of closed national networks. He is one of the authors of Game Changer: Structural Transformation of Cyberspace (2017) and Game Player: Facing the Structural Transformation of Cyberspace (forthcoming 2019) published by the Finnish Defence Research Agency, Riihimäki.

Dr. Gudrun Persson is the Deputy Research Director of the Russia and Eurasia Studies Programme at the Swedish Defence Research Agency, FOI, and an associate professor at the Department of Slavic Studies, Stockholm University. She focuses on Russian security policy, and Russian military strategic thought. She holds a Ph.D. in Government from the LSE. She lectures regularly at Stockholm University and Uppsala University, and has published widely on Russian affairs, including four monographs. She is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences. Among her publications are:"Conflicts and contradictions: Military relations in the post-Soviet space" in Moshes, Arkady and Racz, Andras (eds) What has remained of the USSR - Exploring the erosion of the post-Soviet space (FIIA, Helsinki 2019), "Russia and Baltic Sea Security – A Background" in Dahl, Ann-Sofie (ed.) Strategic Challenges in the Baltic Sea Region – Russia, Deterrence, and Reassurance, (Georgetown University Press 2018), Russian Military Capability in a Ten-Year Perspective 2016 (ed), (FOI, Stockholm 2016), Learning from Foreign Wars. Russian Military Thinking 1859–1873, (Helion 2013).

Daivis Petraitis works in the Ministry of Defence of Lithuania as a senior adviser in the Department of International Relations and Operations. He is a retired officer of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. He also works as an independent analyst on different defence and security topics. His main area of interest and research is Russian military matters, the area where he spent more than twenty years of research and analysis both as a military analyst and an independent researcher. His publications on this topic include: Reorganization of the Russian Armed Forces (2005-2015), National Defence University, Helsinki, 2012, The new face of Russian military, Lithuanian annual strategic review 2015, vol.13, The Anatomy of Zapad-2017: Certain Features of Russian Military Planning, Lithuanian annual strategic review 2017-2018, vol. 16.

Katri Pynnöniemi is an Assistant Professor of Russian Security Policy at the University of Helsinki and National Defence University (Finland). Dr Pynnöniemi’s research has focused on system change in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union and its implications, first for EU-Russia relations, and more recently, for Russia’s foreign and military policy. She has published on Russia’s policy on critical infrastructure, emergence of concept strategic planning as part of national security policymaking, and the adjustments made to the latest security strategies in Russia (Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 2018). Her most recent edited book is Fog of Falsehood: Russian Strategy of Deception and the Conflict in Ukraine (FIIA, 2016).

Dr. Mari Ristolainen is a Researcher at the Finnish Defence Research Agency. She has studied psychology at the Moscow State University and she earned a doctorate in Russian Language and Cultural Studies from the University of Joensuu in 2008. She has been conducting postdoctoral research in the field of Russian and Border Studies in several Academy of Finland- and EU-funded projects at the University of Eastern Finland and at the University of Tromso, Norway. Her current research interests include cyber warfare as a phenomenon, Russian digital sovereignty, and the governance of cyber/information space. Dr. Ristolainen is one of the authors of Game Changer: Structural Transformation of Cyberspace (2017) and Game Player: Facing the Structural Transformation of Cyberspace (forthcoming 2019) published by the Finnish Defence Research Agency, Riihimäki.

LTC, Dr.Pol.Sc. Jyri Raitasalo is Military Professor of War Studies at the Finnish National Defence University (FNDU). He holds the title of Docent in strategy and security policy at the FNDU. During his latest assignments, Jyri Raitasalo has served as senior staff officer (strategic planning) at the Finnish MOD, the Commanding Officer of the Helsinki Air Defence Regiment (Armoured Brigade), Head Lecturer of Strategic Studies at the Finnish National Defence University, ADC to the Chief of Defence and Staff Officer (strategic planning) in the Finnish Defence Command (J5). Jyri Raitasalo is a called member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences. Jyri Raitasalo has published several academic monographs and articles, focusing mainly on the post-Cold War era Western security and defence policy and the changing character of war. These publications include for example:(2017) "Getting a Grip on the so-called ‘Hybrid Warfare’", Air and Space Power Journal Africa & Francophonie, 3rd Quarter 2017, s. 20–39. (2015) "The Crisis over Ukraine - A Conceptual Watershed in Western Defence Policy" in Proceedings and Journal, no. 4/2015, the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences, p. 70-81, (2014) "Moving beyond the Western Expeditionary Frenzy", Comparative Strategy vol. 33, no. 4, p. 372-388, (2010) Reconstructing Finnish Defence in the Post-Cold War Era, Finnish Defence Studies 18, Helsinki: National Defence University, 172 pages.

Elina Sinkkonen is Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. She received her doctorate from University of Oxford, Department of Politics and International Relations in 2014. Her research interests include Chinese nationalism, public opinion issues in China, authoritarian regimes, regional security in East Asia and domestic-foreign policy nexus in IR theory. More information can be found at www.elinasinkkonen.com. Her recent publications include: Sinkkonen, Elina. 2018. "China-Russia Security Cooperation: Geopolitical Signalling with Limits." FIIA Briefing Paper 231, 1−9. Sinkkonen, Elina. 2018. "Pohjois-Korean hullu vuosi 2017." [North Korea issue in 2017] Maanpuolustus: turvallisuuspoliittisia tiedonantoja [National defence: Finnish bulletin of security politics] 126, 20−24. Sinkkonen, Elina. 2017. (ed.) The North Korean Conundrum: International Responses and Future Challenges. FIIA Report 52, 1−112.

Mr. Olli-Matti Mikkola (PhD) is First Secretary at the Embassy of Finland, Kyiv, Ukraine. Dr. Mikkola holds a PH.D. in Russian language from the University of Turku, Finland. His research focuses on military and security policy issues in Russia and Ukraine. In 2018, Mikkola acts as a Visiting scholar in the Wilson Center, Washington DC.